Soap guards



Oct. 29, 1963 M. SAMS 3,108,392

SOAP GUARDS Filed Dec. 28, 1962 FIG.5 FIG.6

INVENTOR.

Y MARTIN SAMS WMM ATTORNEY United States Patent ()fitice 3 1 Patented Oct. 29, 1 963 3,103,392 SOAP GUARDS Martin Sams, 7 635 Byron Ave., Miami Beach, Fla. Refiled for abandoned application Ser. No. 10,231, Feb. 23, 1960. This application Dec. 28, 1962, Ser.

1 Claim. (11. 45-28) My invention relates to devices for preventing deterioration of cake soap during its use and is directed par ticularly to an improved attachment device for cake soap which serves to hold the soap elevated from its resting surface during period of non-use to allow complete drying until used again.

Devices for holding cake soap elevated from its resting surface to allow water drainage and to promote drying and thereby eliminate softening and wasting away of the soap, and the attendant soap jell mess in the soap holder, are known. Such devices, however, have been deficient for one reason or another in fulfilling their intended purpose and thus have found little if any acceptance by the general public.

It is accordingly the principal object of my invention to provide an improved attachment device or soap guard of the character described which eliminates the deficiencies of such devices heretofore known.

A more particular object of my invention is to provide a soap guard of the above nature which is adapted to be attached to a cake of soap at one side and which includes novel suction and mechanical means for securely holding it in place until the soap is fully used.

Another object of the invention is to provide a soap guard which is devoid of protruding lugs, pins or other projecting'attachment means and which therefore will not project through the top of the soap cake when it becomes thin to interfere with further use.

Yet another object is to provide an improved soap guard device of the above nature which is smooth about its exterior surface so as to change as little as possible the feel of the soap in the users hands, and which, at the same time, adds slight friction when rotating and rubbing the soap in the hands, as customarily done in hand and face washing, whereby the creation of a thick lather is facilitated.

Still another object is to provide an improved soap guard device of the above nature which is so designed that the soap cake with which it is used will wear away in such a manner that the remaining cake will always be substantially proportional in shape to that of the original cake, whereby the remainder of a soap sliver which breaks up into small pieces usable only with difliculty will be eliminated.

Yet another object of my invention is to provide "a soap guard device of the above nature which can readily be made of a clear synthetic plastic, and which includes novel means for interiorly receiving an advertising card which will be in view through the device, and at the same time fully protected, whenever the soap is picked up for use.

Still other objects are to provide a soap guard device of the above nature which is reusable indefinitely, which is inexpensive to manufacture, long wearing in use, highly effective in operation, attractive in appearance, and particularly well suited for use as an advertising give-away item.

Other objects, features and advantages of my invention will be apparent from the following description when read with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, wherein like reference numerals denote corresponding parts through the several views:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a soap guard attachment device embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view illustrating how the soap guard is placed and attached on a new cake of soap, and shows how it supports the soap at an elevated position above its resting surface;

FIG. 3 is a transverse cross-sectional view of a cake of soap and its attachment device, taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. 2 in the direction of the arrows, illustrating how the device anchors itself in place mechanically and how the soap wears away in use;

FIG. 4 is a bottom view of the soap guard attachment device, shown separately, and illustrating the appearance of the advertising card as seen through the clear plastic body thereof;

FIG. 5 is a partial inside elevational view of the rim of the soap guard, illustrating how surface irregularities are formed therein; and

FIG. 6 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken along the line 66 of FIG. 5 in the direction of the arrows, illustrating details of the cutting edge of the soap guard.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, 10 designates my improved soap guard, the same being oval in peripheral shape and comprising a body portion 11, the bottom of which is convex in cross-sectional shape and an integral upstanding side wall portion 12 shaped as hereinbelow described to provide a continuous oval cutting edge 13. Preferably, the side wall portion 12 diverges outwardly of the body portion 11 at a slight angle, as best shown in FIG. 6. The peripheral cutting edge 13 of the soap guard 10 lies substantially in a flat plane whereby said soap guard will fit flat against one face of a flat-faced cake of soap for attachment in the manner hereinbelow described. The oval contour of the cutting edge 13 of the soap guard 10 moreover is of such proportions as will result also in substantially edge-to face contact with an ordinary oval cake of face soap.

As illustrated in FIGS. 1, 5 and 6 the side wall portion 12 of the soap guard 10 is formed about the inside to provide surface irregularities 14, which may be in the form of X's, as illustrated, between the cutting edge 13 and the base of said side wall portion. The surface irregularities 14 constitute internal anchoring means for the soap, as is hereinbelow described. The base of the side wall portion 12 of the soap guard 10 terminates at a flat, interior floor portion 15 having a central rectangular recess or depression 16. As illustrated best in FIG. 3, the side walls 17 of the rectangular depression 16 are outwardly flared or beveled. The depression 16 of the soap guard 10 is adapted to receive a small rectangular card 18 of cardboard or the like which may be imprinted with advertising matter on its underside visible through the bottom of said soap guard, as illustrated in FIG. 4. The convexity of the bottom surface portion of the body portion 11 of soap guard 10 acts as a lens through which the flat advertising card is given a curved, three-dimensional appearance that greatly enhances its attractiveness. The size of the rectangular card 18 is slightly greater than the size of the rectangular depression 16 at the bottom, so that simply pushing said card in place down along the beveled side walls 17 will slightly jam the edges of said card when fully seated and thereby hold it securely in place without the necessity of any additional securing means.

In use, the soap guard 10 will be placed centrally against one face of a cake of soap S, as shown in FIG. 2, and pressed thereagainst with the hand so that the peripheral edge 13 will dig into the soap (see FIG. 3). This can ordinarily be done without difficulty with a fresh cake of soap, but if the soap is dry and hard, allowing it to soften a little by using it or by soaking it in water for a few seconds, will facilitate attachment. Pressing the soap guard 10 in place until its bottom surface portion 15 seats squarely against the soap will initially force most of the air trapped between the hollow thereof and the soap, out around the peripheral cutting edge 13, whereby the suction thereby created will aid in keeping the soap guard from becoming accidentally separated. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the outwardly-inclined outer peripheral surface of the side wall portion 12 initially fills with soap to firmly anchor the soap guard in place. After the attached soap guard has been in place a short time, however, moisture will cause the soap to swell into conformance with surface irregularities 14, as shown in FIG. 6, to mechanically hook into and even more securely lock the soap guard in place.

It has been found that the shallow, oval shape of the soap guard embodying my invention not only does not substantially change the feel of the soap, so as not to be distracting or objectionable to the user, but also results in a wearing away of the soap in such a manner that while in various stages of consumption, as illustrated by the broken line representations of the soap in FIG. 3, the soap will maintain a shape proportionate to its original shape. Thus the formation of long fragile slivers is discouraged and the soap becomes usable until it is substantially fully consumed. As will be apparent from the broken-line representations showing the soap as it wears away in FIG. 3, the soap will recede from the outside of the side wall portion 12, until the outwardly-inclined surface thereof no longer has any holding effect. At this point the soap guard might separate from the soap cake if it were not for the holding action of the internal surface irregularities 14, which lasts until the soap is fully consumed. It has further been found that the relatively high frictional coeflicient of the outer surface of the soap guard as compared with the frictional coefficient of the soap surface when in use encourages formation of acleansing lather when the soap is rubbed and turned in the hands, thereby further facilitating washing action.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, when the soap S is placed on its resting surface the soap guard is sufliciently shallow in depth to keep the soap combined therewith at a low enough center of gravity to prevent tipping to one side or the other at all sizes of soap-use. At the same time, the soap will always be supported high and dry above a single contact point on the resting surface to eliminate loap mess and insure rapid drying of drained water.

An important feature of my novel soap guard resides in the fact that there are no objectional anchoring lugs,

4 pins or the like to project through the back of the soap before it becomes fully consumed.

It is particularly to be noted that that portion of the face of the soap cake S within the hollow of the soap guard 10 will remain seated against the floor 15 thereof as when initially applied. Thus, since the soap guard 10 is impervious to air, the partial vacuum resulting in any attempt at removal will enhance the anchoring action provided by the undercuts 14 While I have described herein only one form in which the invention may conveniently be embodied in practice, it is to be understood that this form is presented by way of example only and not in a limiting sense. In short, my invention is limited only by the scope and spirit of the following claim.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

An attachment device for a cake or bar of soap comprising an oval-shaped integrally formed hollow member having a piano-convex bottom portion, a continuous side wall portion integrally formed about the periphery of said bottom portion and having a peripheral edge defining a substantially fiat plane, said lano-convex portion defining a flat interior floor portion in spaced parallel relation to said plane defined by said peripheral edge, anchoring means in said wall portion operative to receive soap swelling therein for securing said attachment device in place when said hollow member is pressed to imbed its peripheral edge into the face of a cake of soap, a shallow rectangular recess formed in said floor portion, and a card of substantially the same size as said recess carrying an advertising message and securely seated within said recess, said side walls of said shallow recess being beveled to permit jam-seating of said advertising card therein, said hollow member being molded of a transparent synthetic plastic material to allow viewing of said card through said plane-convex bottom portion.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,983,002 Reeves Dec. 4, 1934 2,577,114 Eames Dec. 4, 1951 2,603,032 Huber July 15, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 559,141 Great Britain Feb. 4, 1944 

